Boy Readers. Response to WSJ.com

This post is in response to today's article How to Raise Boys that Read on the Wall Street Journal.

If you are a person in the position of connecting boys with books, I would think you have a response to Mr. Thomas Spence. My perspective comes as a second grade teacher who constantly tries to connect boys with a good book, and scrounges yard sales, book orders, and offers for a book I think will hit the spot for a child. I often will seek out a book for the sole purpose of trying to connect it with one kid, which is but a snapshot in their education (the most brief click if they don't get past page two).

Mr. Spence makes the assumption that boys are only connecting with the rude humor books. They seek out a wide variety of books that span across a range of genres. And though most of them can connect with Mike Thaler's Lagoon books, and the Dav Pilkey Captain Underpants Series, I have witnessed these books as a simple bridge to book immersion. The use of comic book style graphics, and two page chapters is a stepping stone to boys. A full jump into a regular chapter book is wasted without a developed imagination or honed comprehension. The quick success boys can have in reading the "gross-outs" is laying a foundation for a group of new readers that are growing up in a fast-paced, graphic decorated culture. You cannot compare this new generation with old school Hardy Boy hammering boys of the past.

Mr. Spence also that these books are, "suited to producing a generation of barbarians and morons than to raising the sort of men who make good husbands, fathers and professionals." Are fart books really a cause of the dead-beat dad epidemic in our country? Would this not be the place to talk about the addictions, divorce, poverty, etc.? You are far from connecting with the true issues. The real issue behind your statement is the lack of modeling. There is no dad around to read to our kids. They lack the skill of being readers because they have not been taught or exposed to it at an early age.

If you are looking for a place that is speaking and addressing the real issues, spend sometime here. These guys know what they are talking about. Sorry Mr. Spence.

Responding in Kind

As I get adjusted to my new class and peep a bit down at next year's class, one thing seems to evident. That thing is the necessary response for teachers to understand the ever evolving world and culture that our students are growing up within. Example: Last year I had one or two students that were really pushing to get a cellphone for Christmas. This year I already have students sharing a cellphone plan with their parents and it is an Iphone. I also have students who came into 2nd grade with Facebook accounts. Oh and I forgot to mention that they have Ipod Touches, Nintendo DSis, and many other gadgets.
The reason there needs to be a teacher response is that we are fooled if we believe that we can just copy last year's program (and who knows how many years before that). There is a new class of students, that is evolving rapidly, that is connected, tech savvy, and ultimately bent towards visual and interactive learning. Our response cannot be more lecture, more paper based learning, and ancient games like Number Munchers (I used to live for this game!).
If we can, we need to respond with educationally based tech tools that the kids are familiar with. We need to find ways to bring value to the Ipod Touch, the cellphone, the Wii, the DSi, and so on. I am not saying that we reject practices that are proven to be effective, but most likely we are holding on to "sacred cows" that could be replaced with tools designed to make learning more relevant and exciting.
I believe that anyone that plans to stick around in education for awhile will fall into two groups. They will either fight against this growing wave with ancient practice or they will respond in kind, armed with evolving tools for evolving students. Please meet me with your weapons in tow!

Weeks 1-2 Using Technology

We officially have two 4 day weeks in. It was such a blast for me. After I got through all the get to know you and routine preaching, I was able to really focus on my goal for the year: Use Technology to Strengthen Learning.
Earlier this week, we got to use our newly acquired I-Pod Touch (thanks PTO). I loaded up a great video from a podcast favorite of mine: BestofYouTube (screen all videos before showing). We watched: The Happiest DJ in the World. The kids took notes during the video of the funny things the DJ did. Once the video was done (we watched it twice), we worked on a Hamburger Paragraph about the DJ. The kids absolutely loved it. Even my reluctant writers didn't realize they were having so much fun writing a 5 sentences paragraph.
Today we got to make use of the Nintendo Wii. It is one of my learning centers for the next week. The group of students played the highly addictive, WordJong and tried to solve the daily puzzle. When they were done, they woite down their word list and handed it in. They used word building skills, teamwork, beginning and ending sounds, just to name a few. I let them use their QuickWords dictionary too, which helped build their dictionary skills. The game tracks their score and if they completed the daily puzzle. This was also really fun, and every kid was figuring out how many days until they were at that center.
I also had my computer center accessing our class website all week at: http://webapps.linemountain.com/blogs/dalgrade2/

Stay tuned for more.

IPod Touch Help

So after a lot of research and input from my awesome PLN, I decided to buy an IPOD Touch with the $200 that our PTO gave us. Now I need just a little more help. What would be the best ways to use this little gem with 2nd grade students?

Leave a comment here or use the hash tag #200spend on Twitter.

Maybe you could lead me to some sites for educators using the IPOD Touch.